Ok, understood. BUT, if ALL covering(s) were removed, would it then be UN shielded? Just curious & thank you

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Guess you could do that, but that's a lot of work. OTA signals are best received outside in an unobstructed area - - above the roof line. Regardless, you need to support the free, unattached end and the overall length should ideally be a multiple of the wavelength. IMO, stick with an over-the-counter device.

Learningmypc - I think this is yet again an issue where you are presenting a problem and wanting a solution where the easiest solution is to avoid your 'problem' to begin with. If you were given an antenna that doesn't work, then ok, it doesn't work, move on. You can't change physics. Jobeard mentioned rabbit ears - you don't need a fancy antenna to pick up a signal, you need an antenna that CAN pick up a signal, some are better than others at picking up specific frequencies. That is what the "HD" ones do, they are optimized. THEN you need to be able to decode/display that signal. You can optimize the heck out of something and that does no good at all if you don't have anything that can decode or play back that signal.

I'm making a lot of assumptions here, because we are now 18 posts in and you haven't said you got it working, but you can't just connect an antenna to a computer and get TV. It has to be decoded, especially now in this 'digital' tv age. Something has to decode it. TVs for decades had 'modulators' in them to decode, but that has stopped in recent years. This stuff isn't magic man, there was lots of science/engineering/knowledge/skill/learning/building blocks behind it. If you don't build that into the wiring/chipsets of what you are connecting that coax cable into, there is no way for it to do anything meaningful for you.

The difference is in how the carrier wave is modulated, or altered. With AM radio, the amplitude, or overall strength, of the signal is varied to incorporate the sound information. With FM, the frequency (the number of times each second that the current changes direction) of the carrier signal is varied.

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Either way, there's circuit called the "detector" to remove the RF, keep the "intelligent information" and pass that into the audio/video system.

Digital has a similar flow through the hardware, but the "detector" is now more like a decryption device, decoding the zeros&ones.

The function of any antennae is to send "signals" to the "detector" and at high frequencies, the antennae must be built (aka tuned) to the frequency band desired

I'm late to the party, but in the past I've done exactly what you're asking with success.. You have to strip the shielding off of the coaxial cable to expose the copper wire, I've done it with about a 1 foot circle and gotten a lot of channels. Assuming you have the tuner in your TV.. it's not going to pick up as many as a normal antenna of course.